


peachy days

by tartejetaime



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9706250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tartejetaime/pseuds/tartejetaime
Summary: farming is made a little easier for Oh Sehun when he accidentally recruits a minor diety to his cause.





	

**Author's Note:**

> written for the chenpionships~ :3 i wish it were longer and so so many things idk

Oh Sehun read through the letter once again. It detailed the borders of the property he’d just inherited and explained a few important notes about the running of an orchard. He had no idea how these quickly made notes from a dying relative he’d met twice were gonna help him run an orchard.

It had barely been five minutes since he’d arrived at the property and he laughed looking out at the small curved lines of trees, arching around the house to the left a bit. Sitting on the steps of the porch, he shook his head in disbelief. This tiny orchard, supposedly small enough to be run by one person, now belonged to him. Past the trees and down the lane, he could see the town.

It was as a pretty as a postcard, nestled between the beach and the fields in a small valley. It was out along the shoreline, a bit further than you’d usually go. A large boardwalk spread up from the main dock and snaked through the small buildings and houses, eventually becoming paved.

Depending on which way the wind was blowing, one could be sitting on the beach and smell hay bales and rolling fields. Farmlands crept to the sea safe on top of the cliffs.

Small idols and sign-posts were scattered around, describing an element of local history and folklore. Many focused on a particular deity, minor ones, little known much beyond the limits of the town. Although to be fair, little was known about them in their own domain. Whispers were heard about them, sometimes from the breeze and sometimes from the rain.

/////

Jongdae dreamt. He was warm, perfectly warm. His arms were stretched out to cushion his head and reached towards the tip of the branch he was sleeping on. His legs, gently curled under him, twitched every now and then. He fell into deep sleep and then drifted back into consciousness, feeling for how the sun had moved across the sky, and then drifted off again.

He saw waves and sea spray and his favourite smile. Just as he reached a full deep sleep, an echo began to reverberate, starting from somewhere deep inside the haze of his dream. It felt like… someone was calling him? He strained to hear and latch on to the sounds.

Slowly returning to the world, he let a stretch roll through his body lifting his hands over his head and finally opening his eyes. Late afternoon sun welcomed him.

Blearily, he looked around, forgetting why he was up. He rubbed his face. Hadn’t there been something? A bad dream? No, he’d been dreaming of Junmyeon… but something had called to him and-oh! Jongdae nearly fell out of the tree when it hit him. It had been so long he took a second to remember what to do.

Trying to calm his excited mind into retracing the steps of the call took more patience than he thought he had in him at the moment. Carefully picking through his dream and trying to reach as deeply as he could into the nether inside, he felt it. Catching the scent of it, he listened carefully. A small call could be heard, just out of reach. And it seemed to be Jongdae’s lucky day, since the sound was not fading away, but echoing louder, steadily gaining confidence. It had been literal ages since he’d felt something this strongly. Sleepy, but buzzing with excitement, Jongdae sat, legs swinging gently under the branch of the peach tree, and listened.

-I guess? continued an uncertain voice. I really don’t know how this will work or what to do. What do I even do tomorrow, how do I start?

Jongdae noticed how thick with sleep his limbs still were and slipped as gracefully as he could out of the tree. He was, regardless of the situation, a bit put-out about being woken up from a peach tree nap. He located the source of the plea just near where he’d been asleep, right in front of the farmhouse.

-Ah, I guess that’s it. How do I end this… um… thank-you for your time? Sehun ended softly, quieter than a whisper. From his tiny apartment in a foggy grey city, running away to the seashore had seemed like ultimate escape. Nothing had worked out for him there. He had nothing, so starting fresh didn’t seem scary. He didn’t think he’d feel the weight of making something of himself bear down even harder.

He held his face in his hands (definitely not about to cry) and groaned loudly. Jongdae looked at him. He was definitely a human, through and through.

“You’ll have to repeat that first part. Completely missed it. I was napping.” Jongdae said.

The human jolted, snapping his head up, and looked around. He was young, still smelled like a pup.

“I’ve only got the confusion part and the end bit, which was nice, good boy, always thank whoever you were praying to even before they’ve answered. Makes sure to start things on the right foot.” continued Jongdae, appearing before the kid. He was trying so hard to hold in his excitement to seem cool and powerful. Sehun stared, mouth agape at the figure in front of him that definitely had not been there moments earlier.

“So…” said Jongdae, stepping forward, “what can I do for you?”

“Um, no offence dude, but who are you?”

Ah. Right. Introductions. “I’m Jongdae, a humble neighbourhood god here to answer your prayers.” said Jongdae, grinning cheekily. Sehun stared. Without missing a beat, Jongdae continued, remembering lines from a long forgotten speech. “I am here to help you, but not to grant wishes. Think of it more as some sort of, ah, divine assistance.”

Sehun wasn’t sure if the man in front of him was losing it or if he himself was. He felt like laughing but somehow that seemed rude. He felt himself starting to believe what he’d just been told. A god.

“A god. You’re a god?”

“You’re catching on quickly, young one.”

“And you’re gonna…” Sehun hesitated, “help me?”  
“Yes, I am.” He paused, raising a hand to his face “Ah! It would help to know what exactly you need help with.”

“The orchard.” said Sehun quickly. “Well, I guess my orchard now, but this,” he gestured vaguely to the surroundings, “this, like, whole place. I want it to work? And have a good harvest!”

“Your wish is my command.” Jongdae winked. “Is that all?” He was feeling generous today, a nice change from his usually duties. There was nothing wrong with providing lift for kites and drying the laundry laid out around the town, of course, but he could do that in his sleep (and often did). A pause followed and Sehun swallowed.

“You can’t, uh,” he hesitated and groaned slightly.

Jongdae narrowed his eyes at the suggestion there were things he couldn’t.

“No, I’m sure you couldn’t, it’s probably in the rules or something-“ he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What.” responded Jongdae sharply.

“What..?”

“What is it I can’t do?”

“Oh. Um, it’s lame, never mind.”

Jongdae waited, starring hard. Sehun turned red and looked at his shuffling feet.

“You… probably aren’t allowed to do it, like you can’t change how people feel, right? Or make them feel things… that’s probably not allowed or...” Sehun’s head was back in his hands. God, way to seem like a loser, Huna.

Understanding what the kid had been hinting at, Jongdae softened and ruffled his hair.

“You’re right, we can’t do that. Well, it’s always much better that we don’t.” He felt for the boy, moving away from home and into someone else’s home and life. On the rare occasions people did move out here, it was established people with partners or children or pensions. Usually all three.  
Sehun felt embarassed.

“Well,” said Jongdae, breaking the silence. “I should be off. I didn’t catch your name, though?”

“Right. I’m Sehun. Oh Sehun.”

“Fantastic.”

Jongdae turned and started to walk down the lane back into town. Sehun stared, jumping between shock and amazement. Calling over his shoulder, Jongdae said goodbye. “We’ll see each other again very soon, Sehun.”

When he blinked, Jongdae was gone.

//////

It was just past sunset, the last rays of direct light gently fading. The sky was painted bright pinks and reds by the setting sun’s fingers. As Jongdae looked and followed the colors back, they reached far up the sky and were fading slowly into smoky grays in the east behind them. Junmyeon lay next to him, his feet gently splashing around in a small brackish tidal pool.

Far in the corner of the beach, away from the warm sand, massive slabs of stone overlapped creating tidal pools of sea and spring waters. He joined Junmyeon, laying down with his back on the still sun-warmed rock. Together they looked up, waiting for the first stars to appear. Jongdae’s hand searched for Junmyeon’s and sighed happily when he found it.

“Do we know anything about running an orchard?” said Junmyeon quietly.

“I think I know the basics.” said Jongdae

“I can’t believe we’ve adopted a mortal.” said Junmyeon.

“Well, you didn’t have to adopt him with me, sweetest.” replied Jongdae, kissing his partner on the cheek.

“And let you run about the town pretending you can run an orchard! Promising a bountiful harvest, honestly Dae, you’re not even a farmlands deity!”

“Well, he doesn’t know that!” Jongdae exclaimed. Junmyeon laughed gently, tracing over constellations quietly. After many, many years of being here, the two of them found their favourite thing to do was to lay back and watch the stars. They found comfort in looking at something more infinite than themselves. The stars were known for giving gentle advice.

“Do you think Yeol would like to help?” asked Junmyeon, a small time later.

“Are you helping me recruit friends, then?” said Jongdae, lighting up.

“Of course.” He paused. “Hm, I’m sure Kyungsoo would as well… I haven’t seen Yixing in ages, he would love this… Oh! And that boy, that nice one from the souvenir shop?”

“Not Zitao…-”

“Yes! Zitao!”

“He looks at me sometimes, I don’t like it. Ever since he was a child, he’d look straight at me.”

“I think he’s dear, splashing in the waves and chasing me all the way up the beach until I sink into the sand. You’re just jealous that we have games we play.” Junmyeon teased, head-butting his partner on the shoulder.

“Am not.” said Jongdae, feigned insult only lasting until he started laughing with Junmyeon.

//////

A loud hammering at the front door of the farmhouse startled Sehun awake a few days later. He staggered out of bed, grabbed a shirt from the floor and struggled into it as he walked the short distance from his bedroom to the door. He saw the outline of Jongdae through the screen door. He felt mildly relieved that he hadn’t hallucinated their entire encounter.

In the few days since, he’d tried to keep busy while waiting for a deity to come calling and help him with his orchard. Even thinking it felt ridiculous, so he’d spent time settling into the farmhouse to distract himself.

He unpacked his one box of belongings, mostly clothing along with some diaries and posters, and gone into town a few times. He’d found the town hall-library hybrid had some books about arboriculture and he’d checked them all out. Trying his best to meet people as well, he’d introduced himself to everyone.

Baekhyun, who ran the local cafe-souvenir shop, had offered him the job of flyer distributer after his current flyer distributer, Zitao, had spent his break with his feet on the cafe counter, showing his boss how much his feet were swelling from standing.

“Dude, what the hell.” he said as he opened the door.

“Oh good, you’re up. Good morning!” Jongdae greeted a bleary-eyed Sehun. He looked much too cheery for the hour, smiling warm like the sun. Sehun’s displeasure melted and he felt a blush creeping up, caught off.

It was a beautiful morning, the sun was starting to rise beyond the valley to the east, the tips of her rays dancing off the dew on the fields and grass. Early spring air by the sea had a cool nip to it, waking Sehun up. The faint smell of salt mixed with hay and golden light.

He breathed deeply. Maybe this would be okay.

“Are you ready?” asked Jongdae, noticing Sehun staring blankly past him.

Curving gently around the house and up the side of the hill, there were four rows of trees. Peach trees, Sehun had discovered as he read through what had been left to him. Combining the research he’d done through books with the slightly confused information from the letter, he had made a rough idea of the work needing to be done. He was relieved at how he’d overestimated the amount of work needing to be done but still glad he had a god at hand to help him. Surely he’d know things about this as well.

His heart felt heavy every time he re-read the lines apologizing for the state of the trees and the orchard. His great-aunt had spent her final years battling illness and had found it difficult to keep up with running things. A nice young man from the town, as she’d written, had helped out some times in the last year, but as a whole, the orchard had been neglected for the previous year. He wanted to make it up to her.

“Not quite yet.” replied Sehun, remembering he was still in his boxers. As appealing as an early pre-dawn start on a cool morning was, he’d need a minute. Jongdae sighed loudly as he was ushered inside.

Once breakfast and real pants had been acquired, they laid out a plan. A rough weekly schedule was drawn up, Jongdae nodding along and scrabbling to remember bits and pieces of any kind of agriculture he knew. They made a list of steps, using an calendar from the back of a journal Sehun had brought along.

There were a few things that only needed to be done once, like adding fresh compost to the bases of the trees and pruning, but others were weekly care. Jongdae assured that he’d be able to recruit some friends when they needed it.

The morning passed, so they spent the next few hours roaming the land, counting the trees, Jongdae listing friends that could help or be of use. Sehun wondered if it would be rude to ask which ones were like him or not. They parted on the promise to meet up again soon.

//////

“How old are you?” asked Sehun as they pruned their second to last tree.

Jongdae laughed, clipping carefully. “Old.” he replied, winking at Sehun between the branches. Unamused, Sehun pressed on.

“But like, how old? And how were you born? Was it like along with the Earth? Was it before? How is that even possible? How far back can you remember?”

“Old,” repeated Jongdae, “and with a bad memory.”

Sehun rolled his eyes, knowing he was keeping things. They moved to the next tree and Jongdae sat on the roots, leaning his head back against the tree. A cool breeze welcomed Sehun as he sat nearby, tired from pruning all day.

“The boring answer would be “I don’t know” coupled with “We conceive of time differently”, if you must know.” said Jongdae as he rested. “When you live somewhere like this,” he gestured to the valley and seashore, “you don’t have the Pyramids and Rome and the building of the Great Wall to date back to. Days aren’t important when you can sleep through 100 and not notice. Even years aren’t all that important. Although, Junmyeon steadfastly claims he remembers exactly when we met.” He looked up, watching the leaves and the sky through them. Drifting slightly then coming back.

“I remember many many generations of your family and particularly bad winters and times when large creatures washed up on the shore. Sorry to disappoint. Of course, I do remember being born.”

Sehun made a small gasp. “You do?”

“Yes, yes.” he took a deep breath and turned to look Sehun dead in the eye. “I am the result of the sun blowing a kiss to the wind. Warm summer breeze, gentle on linens and on skin.” Smiling wide and laughing loudly, he blew Sehun a kiss and layed back on the trunk of the tree and closed his eyes.

“And swings are mostly a pass time.” Without looking, he gestured lazily towards the tire swing hanging in a strong tree right off of the porch. It twisted and twirled, as if happy to be noticed.

They’d spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon pruning old and scarggly branches off of the trees. The cool spring air made for more pleasant manual labour weather, although summer was not far off.

Their long term schedule had tasks marked off for specific weeks, but their daily schedule was much looser. Most days, Jongdae arrived before the sun was up and got Sehun out of bed and out the door.

//////

The first step was finding compost. And the necessary tools.

“My good friend Kyungsoo, with that affinity with wild animals, he could simply encourage them to… linger around the base of the trees?”

“We can’t just use magic every time we have to do something!” exclaimed Sehun.

“It’s not magic,” said Jongdae, pouting, “it’s more like a deeper connection to the physical world.”

“Listen, talking to animals and controlling the rain is magic to this human.”

Sehun had little time for technicalites about his new friend’s magic powers. How could someone as old as time be as impatient as this. They’d been searching the small wooded area nearby for the compost heap. “Alleged compost heap” as Jongdae started calling it after an hour. It was set-up there to keep deer and other animals from being attracted to the fruit of the trees, but made for quite the adventure when emptying the compost bin.

If, that was, they could find it. Finally, on their way back to the house, just off to the side of the small path worn by many feet n paws, they spied a large heap of black earth, nearly half the height of Sehun and many feet wide. Speared into it was a large shovel, and they found two more leaning against a tree. The roots of the tree were thicker and more numerous around the heap.

“Well then,” said Jongdae, hands gripping a large branch as he began to heft himself up, “you have fun, I’ll be right here.”

“Wrong.” said Sehun, throwing a shovel to his feet.

After much protesting and excuses and trying to convince Sehun that there was a “big important meeting of the gods that I can’t miss”, Jongdae settled for shovelling the compost into the wheelbarrow and guarding the heap so that no harm came to it while Sehun trekked back to the house.

By about 2 in the afternoon, half the heap was nestled roughly in the middle of the orchard and Sehun started to notice a problem. Two problems, really. First of all, the amount of work it took to get all of the earth there and how much there was left to bring and distribute. He’d sweated through his shirt many times his arms and legs were acheing and heavy. Second, how the trees still needed watering and he felt strongly about doing it alongside the fertilizing.

“Water will help the trees, like, absorb the nutrients and stuff from the fresh soil, right?” Sehun had asked.

“Um, yeah?” Jongdae had replied.

Leaning on the shovel, exhausted, Sehun wondered if he was in too deep already in his first weeek. He hadn’t heard anyone approach and nearly jumped out of his skin when Jongdae put his arm on his shoulder.

“Junmyeon is here and I didn’t want him to spook you.”

Sehun turned, thinking up a snappy reply but- Oh, he’s so close. The warmth creeping into his cheeks was disguised with the flush from the work he’d been doing.

“He’s here?” questionned Sehun, looking around to spot him.

“Yes,” replied Jongdae, looking out the lane. “Right there.” As he finished his sentence, a figure appeared, waving excitedly.

Jongdae bounded to meet him, pulling Junmyeon into a strong hug, who responded by lifting him ever so slightly into the air. Sehun could hear their laughter and thought of warm summer days at the beach.  
As they approached, Jongdae kept an arm loosely around Junmyeon’s waist.

“I’m Junmyeon, it’s fantastic to meet you, Jongdae has spoken so highly of you in these past weeks.” he said, smiling up at Sehun, who shuffled his feet and stared at them.

“H-hello.” he replied, trying to make eye-contact without turning a guiltier shade of red. He felt his stomach drop a bit watching them. Of course Jongdae would be with someone as handsome as Junmyeon.

They had work to do, though, and Sehun was curious about what Junmyeon could do. He was necessary for water as the well Sehun relied on was suffering from the winter and spring being drier than usual. The ground sounded hollow and felt hard when he stepped on it. He feared using the well too much would dry it out. There were brooks and streams nearby, just up the side of the valley more, but they needed lots of water in a short amount of time.

“So, you’ve recruited me for water?” said Junmyeon. Sehun nodded.

“I’ll see what I can do. Fresh water can disagree with salt water and your trees would definitely not appreciate a dousing of sea water.” When he laughed, it sounded a bit forced. “Yeah… I’ll, um, get on that.”

“I’m sure it’ll work, Myeon.” said Jongdae reassuringly.

Junmyeon grimaced slightly.

“I did have that bad disagreement with the river that runs through here…”

Sehun’s newly restored hope faltered.

Jumyeon disppeared shortly after, assuring them he’d be back as soon as possible. Tired and sore from the morning, Jongdae and Sehun admired their makeshift compost pile. The rest of the afternoon drifted by, Jongdae hoisting himself into a nearby peach tree to nap, Sehun finding some leftovers in the kitchen and eating them on the porch.

The sun slowly made its way over the crest of the sky. Whenever he looked up, Jongdae seemed to be nestled in a different tree, hair streaming along with the breeze. He watched him for a little while. Please let this work, he prayed. The trees looked like baby birds, all branch and awkward joints with the tiniest fluffs of leaves appearing on some of them.

When he’d arrived, the branches were only dotted with the tiniest nibs, not even buds yet, and he’d nervously watched them grow, worried they weren’t doing anything quickly enough. Now that there were delicate buds and small leaves taking shape, he relaxed slighty. His recurring nightmare from early days of the trees simply not moving, growth stagnant and branches barren for eternity was beginning to fade. Sehun sat back against the trunk of a tree and tried not to think of anything at all.

“Sehun? Are you sleeping?” He must have drifted off. He blinked many times trying to open his eyes and was dazzled by the bright sunshine and curious face above him. It was Zitao. Attempting to rub sleep out of his face and stand up while making sure his hair looked okay was difficult on sleepy feet and he hit his head against a low lying branch in the process. Zitao started, as if to try to help, but started laughing instead when Sehun swore.

“I, uh, yeah, I guess I was asleep.” he said finally, rubbing his head. He hoped he smelled okay.

“How on earth is there time to sleep when you run an orchard! It’s good I came by to help you.” He smiled proudly and Sehun relaxed.

They worked for hours, digging small grooves around the bases of the trees and filling in with compost. Jongdae came back as well, supervising from the swing on the porch with his eyes closed. Zitao seemed to know him and greeted him with familiarity. Small towns, Sehun figured.

Distracted from laughing with Zitao, Sehun only noticed the earth getting softer on the last groove he dug. Much less dust kicked up from the impact and the shovel went in much more easily. Sehun called out to Jongdae, waving the shovel around. Zitao, curious, joined him, scuffing the earth with his shoe.

When Sehun looked around to find Jongdae, he spotted Junmyeon with him. Junmyeon was flushed and smiling wide, and Jongdae held him around the waist as if to present him. He was speaking excitedly.

“I didn’t know if it would work at all but I took my time and we talked it through and the river decided to talk to the spring and the spring agreed and now there’s a small source nearby and the earth has just soaked it up and I encoraged it a bit and!”

He got onto his knees and gently stroked the groove Sehun had dug. It filled quietly with water and Junmyeon nearly burst with excitement.

“It likes me!” he cried. Sehun thanked him endlessly and Zitao shyly congratulated him “on the cool water stuff”. Jongdae never took his eyes off of Junmyeon. Zitao fed off of the surrounding excitement and grabbed Sehun’s hands, chanting “Wa-ter, wa-ter, wa-ter!”

Later that night, just as Sehun was falling asleep, he cringed, wondering how many of his newfound friends he had crushes on.

//////

Heavy blossoms dotted the tree branches at the end of the spring. Soon, their petals would begin to fall and the ground around the farmhouse and nearly down the lane would be carpeted. Jongdae hadn’t seen blossoms this beautiful in many years. He gently ruffled the leaves and petals of the tree he was sitting under, watching them resettle comfortably.

He was waiting for the sun to reach up a little higher into the sky before waking Sehun. The kid had worked himself hard the past month with the work to prepare for summer, he deserved his rest. Now that the the initial work was done, there’d be some maintenance but much less work than before. The trees were happy, singing as the breeze blew through them.

 

//////

 

Jongdae was settled on the roof of the building opposite Baekhyun’s cafe. Beside him, Junmyeon was peering over the roof’s ridge.

“Can you see him?”

“No… but I was just at the orchard and he left before me…”

“Oh, there he is, he just passed the brook on the path outside of town, he’ll be right,” Junmyeon pointed to the town’s welcome sign, “there in a few minutes.”

“Look at you,” Jongdae teased, “getting along with fresh water.”

Junmyeon laughed and gently hit Jongdae’s arm. “I’ve gained some credibility with it, I guess.”

“Look at Taozi.” cooed Junmyeon, nose against the crest of the roof. “He hates everything about that job except for the rotating outfits.

” Today, Zitao was a in a large blue felt fish. Unfortunately, it had been designed for someone under 6 feet and the only solution was to cut a hole in the top of the costume, which meant Zitao’s head was coming out of the fish’s mouth, instead of peering through the mesh eye as was intended. Two hairy legs stuck out from under the fish and into sneakers, with a fan tail resting between them. Most of his work day was spent standing outside of the cafe trying to get people to come in.

As Sehun rounded the corner into town, he felt the breeze pick up and smelled hay and blossoms. His blossoms. Oh. Looking around himself, he saw light pink petals twirling and swaying. Gently carried by the wind, the petals glided over the roofs and twirled into the town, falling like the softest rain on the the sea and the beach. They fell and crowned the foamy ends of the waves.

“You look beautiful.” said Jongdae. Junmyeon, with petals in his hair, kissed his nose in reply.

Zitao, noticing the shower of petals, looked up, partly in awe, partly for a better chance at snapping one between his teeth. Sehun approached, feeling light, laughing quietly at Zitao bouncing up and down without a care. Moving closer, he realized he was in love. Halfway there, Zitao noticed him, and moved to close the gap between them. The gods on the rooftop cheered quietly.

//////

Sehun gently squeezed what must have been his 100th peach in a row.

"One of them has got to be ready!" he cried to Jongdae, who was also sniffing around the trees.

"Maybe they need more time." replied Jongdae thoughtfully, gently gripping a hard peach. 

Sehun scowled. "That's easy for you to say... Look! They're all round and big and the right color! Why won't they give!" Sehun wrapped his arms up around a branch. "Please, little guy?"

Jongdae laughed and continued enjoying Sehun's despair. It had been a week of this. Sehun decided the Sunday prior that it was time for the peaches to be ready since they looked ready. He must have felt every fruit on the property by now. As fun as teasing was, Jongdae did have tasks around town to perform. He'd been rushing things and had to get back on a regular schedule, especially after hearing an old woman boasting about her laundry drying not ten minutes after she hung it up on the clothesline.

"Keep hugging the branches." Jongdae called as he started to walk away "They like it." Sehun moaned. 

Hours passed and Sehun was deciding to give up on today. He'd gently sprayed down the trees with a gentle bug repellent, a mixture of dish soap and cinnamon oil. Unmotivated to do anything else, he decided to try one last time to find a ripe peach.

"I FOUND IT. I FOUND IT, JONGDAE, LOOK." Sehun ran around the tree, presenting a round soft peach to the sky. "I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME." He couldn't believe his hands, the soft skin of the peach in his palms. As he yelled to the heavens, the breeze picked up and he felt the sea. Peach in hand, he bolted down the lane.

He skirted around the edge of town and ran down the boardwalk and through the reeds to the beach. Kicking of his shoes and careful not to drop his precious peach, he looked around and spotted Jongdae, holding hands with Junmyeon. He ran to them, peach held high like a trophy. He heard them cheering.

"Isn't it gorgeous?" said Sehun, eyes nearly tearing when he got to them. Junmyeon, although a foot shorter than Sehun, grabbed him by the middle and lifted him into a hug.

Sehun squawked and laughed, feeling Jongdae's hand ruffle his hair as he came down. 

"It's beautiful, Sehun." said Junmyeon

"Gorgeous." agreed Jongdae. "But... how does it taste." Junmyeon smacked his arm.

"Oh! I haven't even tried it yet. I just can't believe we did it." said Sehun, blinking.

Jongdae put his hand over his heart: "You thought we would fail? With me on your side?" he exclaimed. Junmyeon rolled his eyes and laughed with Sehun.

"Y-you have to try it first." Sehun said, offering the peach.

"But it's your success." said Jongdae

"It wouldn't be without your help."

"Don't let his head get any bigger." said Junmyeon

Jongdae grinned, touched by Sehun's gesture as well, and bowed his head slightly while accepting the peach. With great ceremony, he lifted it to his mouth, closed his eyes, and took a bite. 

//////


End file.
